Game With A Mean Storyteller/07 Aug 2011
nteredteree(7:04:22 PM) Crowns: Last time, we mostly faffed because we were arguing about whether we were playing D&D or Angst:The Whitewolfening. (7:04:53 PM) Birds: More like DnD versus Power: the Acquisition. (7:06:01 PM) Reiver: Impetius Command is a new one for the current proposed MC rules - you can be a General, Warlord or Hero - Heros are in the throng killing things, Generals are back from the front guiding an army but not directly fighting, and Warlords do both - but are at greater risk and suffer penalties on the grand scale when they're tied up in the thick of things. (7:06:25 PM) Crowns: Reiver: I don't think anyone's listening any more, we're hijacking the channel to play GWAMS. :p (7:11:45 PM) Silk: TRR is AWOL again (7:11:51 PM) Birds: End his life. (7:12:09 PM) ***Remmon kills TRR (7:13:41 PM) Shield: That was sorta anticlimactic. (7:16:34 PM) Remmon: What? I killed the player, not the character :p (7:16:55 PM) Remmon: Anyways. You are supposed to be off to go meet an Elder Lunar (7:17:32 PM) Crowns: So. Last time, TRR brought Schrodinger's Squeeze, and now we collapsed the wavefunction to decide that neither of them are actually present. Then we flew to Birds' manse, and I started practising the sanxian. (7:17:49 PM) Remmon: Indeed (7:18:00 PM) Silk: Oh and I still want to trip Limit at the next full moon (7:18:04 PM) Silk: Whenever that is (7:22:16 PM) Remmon: Another 15 days, Silk. (7:22:27 PM) Silk: Right. (7:23:13 PM) Shield: I will start putting in training toward Ess 5 if that's all right. Presuming our path takes us through sunlit places anyway. (7:23:58 PM) Birds: If he is allowed that, I want that too. (7:24:13 PM) Remmon: Aren't your training requirements pretty much opposite? (7:24:42 PM) Birds: RAW: Essence requires downtime of meditation vacation. (7:24:50 PM) Crowns: I think his point is that "sunlit places" is a very low standard. (7:24:56 PM) Shield: Ah, never mind then. (7:25:15 PM) Shield: I just need to take four months off at some point from all this adventuring. (7:26:20 PM) Remmon: And then everyone can train lots again. (7:26:25 PM) Remmon: Anyways... Elder Lunar? (7:26:34 PM) Birds: Yes. Where exactly are we going? (7:27:41 PM) Remmon: Silk knows (7:27:44 PM) Crowns: TO THE WYLD. (7:28:07 PM) Birds: !exalted 4 (7:28:08 PM) PainBot: Birds rolled (3 4 4 4). Successes (TN 7) = 0. (7:28:09 PM) ***Silk guides the party onwards, to ADVENTURE (7:28:15 PM) Silk: Or maybe Elder Lunars (7:28:20 PM) ***Birds stormwinds according to Silk's instructions. (7:28:39 PM) Crowns: Elder Lunars probably are an adventure. :p (7:28:49 PM) Silk: heh (7:31:03 PM) Remmon: You fly out to the west, where you soon happen upon an island that doesn't seem quite right. It's a volcanic island with thick vegetation. (7:31:30 PM) Crowns: Elder Lunars can turn into landscapes and change features on the fly. Presto, instant dungeoncrawl! (7:32:05 PM) ***Birds flies some more, unless this is where Silk says we're going. (7:32:12 PM) Silk: Is it? (7:32:34 PM) Remmon: This island is where the elder lunar is supposed to be. (7:32:39 PM) Silk: "There." (7:32:46 PM) Silk: "That's the place." (7:33:35 PM) Silk: "He or she should be there." (7:34:47 PM) ***Birds puts them down on the shore. (7:37:18 PM) Quad IceChat77@Nightstar-a0043b7a.cable.virginmedia.com entered the room. (7:38:03 PM) Silk: "Alright..." (7:38:11 PM) Remmon: You land safely, the sand whirling around you as the stormwind pulls onto the beach (7:38:24 PM) ***Birds investigates. Any Elder Lunar tracks? (7:38:41 PM) Silk: "He/she should know we've arrived... I don't doubt he/she's got some kind of perimeter warning system." (7:39:02 PM) Silk: "Look out for... probably beastmen. Or clawmarks." (7:39:28 PM) Shield: "Will anything try to kill us here?" (7:39:42 PM) Silk: "Maybe?" (7:39:59 PM) Silk: "Shame I never learnt Clawspeak..." (7:40:06 PM) Shield: "I'll kill them back then, I suppose." (7:40:40 PM) ***Shield shrugs, takes up a position somewhere at the front of the group. (7:42:06 PM) Remmon: You gonna wait around on the beach or head into the forest? (7:42:20 PM) Silk: Does the forest look at all sinister? (7:42:30 PM) Remmon: It looks vast, dark and tropical (7:42:37 PM) Silk: Hmm... (7:42:53 PM) Remmon: In the twilight, it will probably look quite sinister. (7:43:21 PM) Silk: "Kinda banking on he/she coming to investigate why we're here. Don't have much of a plan if he doesn't come to us other than searching the entire island..." (7:43:24 PM) Birds: !exalted 7: Looking for tracks and stuff (7:43:24 PM) PainBot: Birds rolled "Looking for tracks and stuff": (6 7 5 1 7 3 1). Successes (TN 7) = 2. (7:43:32 PM) Crowns: "Flare, draw attention?" (7:43:36 PM) Silk: *he/she (7:43:45 PM) Remmon: There's not much in terms of tracks here on the beach. (7:43:54 PM) Remmon: Some lizard and snake tracks, but nothing remotely large. (7:44:07 PM) Silk: "Don't really want to bring unwanted attention as well though." (7:44:20 PM) Silk: "Might give the wrong impression." (7:45:13 PM) Crowns: "I thought we wanted attention." (7:45:26 PM) Birds: "I suggest you try to lead us to your Elder, Silk." (7:47:55 PM) ***Silk spends three motes, making her caste mark, tatoos, tell and anima become obvious to see and slowly leads the way into the jungle (7:48:23 PM) Remmon: What's the order you're walking in? (7:49:02 PM) Crowns: *shrug* (7:49:04 PM) Birds: Silk, Shield, Birds, Crowns? (7:49:07 PM) Crowns: Silk first, put me somewhere. (7:49:26 PM) Remmon: Okies (7:49:28 PM) Remmon: !d4 (7:49:28 PM) PainBot: Remmon rolled "d4": (4). Total: 4. (7:49:35 PM) Remmon: Crowns has a surprise negator. (7:49:55 PM) Remmon: As such, he's not surprised at all when a dozen or so meters into the forest, one of the trees tries to take a bite out of him. (7:49:59 PM) Remmon: Defenses? (7:50:21 PM) Crowns: DDV 8+ (attacker's essence/2). (7:50:42 PM) Remmon: It can't hit. (7:51:22 PM) Crowns: "I'd say 'bite me', but that would probably just encourage it." (7:51:27 PM) ***Crowns makes a face at the tree instead. (7:51:33 PM) ***Birds appraises the tree. (7:52:02 PM) Remmon: The tree appears to have come alive and tried to eat Crowns, Birds. You suspect the Wyld is to blame. (7:52:20 PM) Remmon: There's probably more of these living trees around. (7:52:44 PM) Shield: "Are we going to get mutated here?" (7:53:32 PM) Silk: "... There's a possibility, yes... Althought we're not that deep in... if we don't stay too long, we should be okay..." (7:55:31 PM) Shield: "And do you have any idea of where exactly we're actually going?" (7:56:30 PM) Silk: !exalted 3: PerInv (7:56:30 PM) PainBot: Silk rolled "PerInv": (3 10 7). Successes (TN 7) = 3. (7:57:15 PM) Remmon: You figure the Lunar's house is probably part way up the mountain, where the vegetation gets a bit less dense. (7:57:34 PM) Silk: "Towards yonder mountain, probably. I think." (7:58:02 PM) Shield: "Birds, how long can we be in here without getting mutated?" (7:58:35 PM) ***Birds attempts to determine if we are in the Bordermarches or the Middlemarches. (7:58:53 PM) Remmon: Right now, you suspect you're in the Bordermarches. (8:00:05 PM) Birds: A month. (8:00:13 PM) Birds: "A month." (8:00:26 PM) Birds: "Anything more is risky, but not too risky." (8:00:47 PM) Shield: "All right. Let me know if that changes, would you? Mutations would be bothersome." (8:01:30 PM) Silk: "I... should have some protection from physical mutations..." (8:01:49 PM) Silk: "Not much help you lot though, I realise." (8:02:32 PM) Crowns: "What sort of mutations? Growing an extra head?" (8:02:57 PM) Silk: "Tails, extra limbs, that sort of thing..." (8:03:25 PM) Crowns: "Prehensile tails?" (8:03:48 PM) Silk: "If you're lucky. Or not, as the case may be." (8:04:04 PM) Silk: "The Wyld also can take a toll on your sanity I believe though..." (8:04:30 PM) Crowns: "Nah." (8:04:35 PM) Remmon: As you proceed deeper into the jungle it becomes impossible to see the mountain through the trees. (8:04:41 PM) Remmon: PerInv, please. (8:04:49 PM) Crowns: !exalted 4 (8:04:50 PM) PainBot: Crowns rolled (2 6 9 10). Successes (TN 7) = 3. (8:04:52 PM) Silk: !exalted 3: Oh lordy. (8:04:52 PM) PainBot: Silk rolled "Oh lordy.": (1 2 5). Successes (TN 7) = 0. (8:05:27 PM) Birds: !exalted 7: PI (8:05:28 PM) PainBot: Birds rolled "PI": (3 4 1 1 10 5 3). Successes (TN 7) = 2. (8:05:30 PM) Shield: !exalted 5: PI (8:05:31 PM) PainBot: Shield rolled "PI": (6 1 4 6 3). Successes (TN 7) = 0. (8:05:52 PM) Remmon: After about an hour of walking, Crowns realises that the roots trying to grapple his feet this time are the same ones as you encountered before. You've been going in circles. (8:06:18 PM) Remmon: Silk and Shield are convinced you're going the right way though and will happily point out all the difference that indicate this isn't the same place you passed before. (8:07:05 PM) ***Crowns hmmms, watches the tree for a bit. (8:07:05 PM) Remmon: Birds is uncertain. Something is certainly up, but she doesn't know for sure if you're going in circles or if there's just someone trying to make it look like that. (8:07:11 PM) ***Shield checks who's right by turning on his suit's fly-mode and taking a peek from above. (8:07:53 PM) Remmon: Shield, you're far further away from the mountain then you expected. (8:08:17 PM) Shield: How far away from the beach are we? (8:08:34 PM) Remmon: 10, maybe 15 minutes of walking. (8:09:16 PM) Shield: "Well, we've covered a lot less ground than expected." says Shield as he descends. "The mountain is that way *point*". (8:09:37 PM) Silk: "Maybe someone else should lead the way." (8:09:44 PM) Crowns: "Silk! Describe the person we're looking for." (8:10:05 PM) Silk: ((Remmon?)) (8:11:04 PM) Remmon: ((You're dealing with a large dark woman or man, short dark curly hair and green eyes.)) (8:11:32 PM) Crowns: "Maybe the landscape will behave better if I look like that." (8:11:50 PM) Crowns: "Someone punch the tree so it doesn't tattle on me." says Crowns, and starts applying makeup. (8:11:55 PM) Crowns: (And charms.) (8:11:59 PM) Remmon: ((In the past, he/she usually didn't wear anything other than a robe. His tell is a tiger's tail and his warform unsurprisingly involves a partial transformation into a tiger)) (8:13:28 PM) Silk: "Uh... Large dark skinned man or maybe woman... short dark curly hair, green eyes uh... Wore a robe last time I saw him/her and... well, he/she has a tiger's tail as his tell." (8:13:42 PM) Silk: "Kinda like mine." (8:13:52 PM) ***Shield looks around for telltale movements in the trees. (8:14:08 PM) Remmon: One of the trees is moving, but there's nothing moving in the trees. (8:14:34 PM) ***Crowns indicates a tree that was trying to grapple him. (8:14:38 PM) Shield: "Can I kill the moving tree?" (8:14:44 PM) ***Crowns continues with Flawlessly Impenetrable Disguise, nods. (8:14:46 PM) ***Shield asks Silk. (8:14:54 PM) Birds: "I think you mean, 'may I'." (8:15:09 PM) Silk: "... I'm not sure? It may anger him/her." (8:15:19 PM) Silk: "We probably don't want that to happen." (8:15:37 PM) Shield: "So you're not sure and Crowns says yes. I'll blame Crowns." (8:16:01 PM) ***Shield walks toward the tree and menaces with a grand daiklave, observes reaction. (8:16:33 PM) Remmon: The tree makes a run for it (8:17:51 PM) ***Shield runs after the tree and knocks it unconscious. (8:18:08 PM) Remmon: Cue, yakety sax music. (8:18:16 PM) Remmon: Shield, you have a surprise negator right? (8:18:33 PM) Shield: Remmon: Yeah, yeah. (8:18:55 PM) Remmon: Various trees try to trip you as you run after your target, but they all fail (8:19:07 PM) ***Shield should say he flies after it since that's faster. (8:19:15 PM) Remmon: (Now... How do you propose kocking out a tree?) (8:19:37 PM) Shield: Good question. Can I roll IntMelee? (8:19:41 PM) Remmon: Go ahead (8:19:52 PM) Shield: !exalted 7: IntMelee (8:19:53 PM) PainBot: Shield rolled "IntMelee": (10 6 1 10 7 3 8). Successes (TN 7) = 6. (8:19:53 PM) Crowns: (With a hammer, obviously.) (8:19:57 PM) Silk: ((BBL, foods (8:20:41 PM) Remmon: Shield, a tree doesn't typically have a brain to bludgeon into unconciousness, but you suspect a few good hits to the roots should put the tree into shock without killing it. (8:21:03 PM) ***Shield applies hurtage to the roots in appropriate measure. (8:21:45 PM) Remmon: The tree falls over and stays still. You think it's unconcious. (8:22:14 PM) ***Shield flies back, reports that the tree is unconscious and the others probably didn't see Crowns change. (8:22:28 PM) Crowns: "Right then, to the mountain, landscape can behave now." (8:22:50 PM) Shield: (I'll check the skies once in a while to make sure we're going in the right direction) (8:24:07 PM) Remmon: You proceed towards the base of the mountain without further incident. As you approach, Shield spots a mansion built into the side of the mountain. (8:24:49 PM) Shield: "There's a mansion in the mountainside. Let's go there and hope it doesn't run away." (8:24:56 PM) Crowns: "Right." (8:25:00 PM) ***Crowns heads onwards (8:25:28 PM) ***Birds follows. (8:26:24 PM) Crowns: "Silk, tell me when we're within bowshot." (8:27:53 PM) Remmon: You're within range, Silk. (8:29:35 PM) Crowns: (Go ahead and don't tell me. :P I will assume you're bad with a bow.) (8:32:29 PM) Crowns: (Silk timed out of TS.) (8:32:54 PM) Remmon: Silk indicates she's within range (8:32:58 PM) ***Crowns stops (8:33:13 PM) Crowns: "Right, that's far enough, if you can get a straight shot there I shouldn't need this." (8:33:17 PM) ***Crowns de-disguises (8:34:07 PM) Shield: "Shooting a message that way?" (8:34:18 PM) Crowns: "Only if it starts being funny again." (8:35:19 PM) Crowns: "Right, on we go." (8:35:40 PM) Shield: "As you say." (8:36:11 PM) ***Shield takes second-from-point, Silk presumably venturing ahead, and trudges on. (8:36:22 PM) ***Birds still follows. (8:36:29 PM) Remmon: You soon reach a path up the mountainside, with various ugly statues lined on the sides. (8:37:00 PM) Shield: (So not high enough quality to be petrified doods?) (8:37:22 PM) Remmon: (Not quite, no) (8:37:28 PM) Remmon: (Also, most aren't humanoid) (8:38:51 PM) ***Birds appraises them for their workmanship. (8:39:26 PM) Remmon: They are of excellent quality. You would have serious trouble trying to do better yourself. (8:44:05 PM) Crowns: "Anything interesting about them?" (8:44:20 PM) Birds: "They're intentionally ugly." (8:44:26 PM) Silk: "Hmmm... Can't say I'm especially impressed with the decor." (8:45:29 PM) Remmon: (We had to cut down on the decors budget because you guiys keep making us spend so much on the special effects) (8:45:30 PM) Crowns: "Right. So presumably they're to hint people into leaving." (8:45:56 PM) Crowns: "Shall we stay around and wait for what's-his-danglies, then? (8:46:15 PM) Birds: "Why not just come up to the door and knock?" (8:46:34 PM) Remmon: "Because the door is trapped, of course." (8:46:52 PM) ***Birds looks for the source of Voice. (8:47:00 PM) Crowns: "That makes sense." (8:47:05 PM) ***Silk turns slowly around. (8:47:06 PM) Crowns: "Probably very dangerous traps too, right?" (8:47:10 PM) Remmon: Birds, there is nobody around here (8:47:30 PM) ***Birds needs to get AESS. (8:47:32 PM) Remmon: "Of course. It took me years to refine them." (8:47:37 PM) ***Shield checks around for spirits. (8:47:49 PM) Birds: "That's great. Who are you, Voice?" (8:47:59 PM) Remmon: Birds, the voice seems to be coming from a cluster of nearby trees, but there's nobody near those trees (8:48:25 PM) Remmon: "They call me the Mysterious Moon of Reckoning." (8:49:17 PM) Silk: "Hello Moon... I'm Silk Staff. We seek an audience with you." (8:51:18 PM) Remmon: "I see. And who are your friends?" (8:51:29 PM) Crowns: "Three Crowns here." *waves* (8:52:49 PM) Silk: (( Birds ? Shield ?)) (8:52:54 PM) ***Shield turns around in his armor. "Shield." (8:53:01 PM) Birds: "You may call me Birds." (8:54:46 PM) Remmon: "So what are two of the Sun's chosen, a youngster and a destroyer of Creation doing in my backyard?" (8:55:19 PM) Crowns: "Seeking knowledge about the First Age." (8:55:34 PM) Silk: "Specifically the parts towards the end." (8:56:50 PM) Remmon: "Well, let's head inside then." (8:57:02 PM) Crowns: "How safe is it?" (8:57:10 PM) Remmon: One of the trees transforms into a woman. (8:57:22 PM) Remmon: "Oh, perfectly safe. Just don't use the front door." (8:57:51 PM) Crowns: "Clever." (8:57:56 PM) Remmon: Moon starts walking towards the mansion (8:58:27 PM) ***Birds follows the elder. (8:58:29 PM) ***Crowns follows too. (8:58:46 PM) ***Silk_ looks for other ways in (8:58:56 PM) ***Shield follows. (8:59:06 PM) Remmon: Moon walks up the path to the front door, then around the mansion to a side door where she lets you in (8:59:20 PM) Silk_: "Thank you." (9:00:14 PM) ***Silk_ enters the mansion and looks around (9:01:03 PM) Remmon: This side door leads into the main hall. To your right are the main doors, with a large pit right behind it. To the left is the rest of the hall, which is arranged in ancient Greek style. (9:01:11 PM) Remmon: There are more ugly statues here. (9:01:30 PM) Silk: "... Ah. Yes. That would've been... nasty to come across." (9:01:40 PM) ***Silk looks carefully down the pit. (9:01:53 PM) Remmon: Got a surprise negator? (9:02:01 PM) Silk: Eyusd (9:02:08 PM) Silk: -d (9:02:20 PM) Silk: Wary Swallow Method. (9:02:53 PM) Remmon: You narrowly avoid falling into the pit when it suddenly jumps several meters towards you in an attempt to swallow you (9:03:07 PM) Remmon: "Oh yeah, be carefull of that pit, it has a habit of doing that." (9:03:30 PM) Silk: "... You don't say..." (9:03:41 PM) Shield: "Nice dodging." (9:04:13 PM) Silk: "Thanks... I'd rather not have to do that again in the near future though..." (9:04:53 PM) Remmon: Moon leads into a side room, a spaciously laid out living room (9:05:02 PM) Birds: "Nice place." (9:05:08 PM) ***Crowns looks for a sofa to flop on. (9:05:33 PM) Remmon: There are several, and a pool attached to the far wall (9:05:41 PM) Silk: "Wow..." (9:05:57 PM) Silk: "... You've really made a nice home for yourself here." (9:06:30 PM) Remmon: "I've been here for quite a while, I had to do something to keep myself busy." (9:07:24 PM) Silk: "What's up with the statues?" (9:07:46 PM) Remmon: "Some of them are my failed experiments, the rest I carved myself." (9:07:58 PM) Crowns: "This is your place; what traditions are we supposed to follow before we talk business?" (9:07:58 PM) Silk: "... Failed experiments?" (9:08:23 PM) Remmon: "Yes, attempts to cross bears with tigers, sharks with crocodiles. That kind of thing." (9:09:14 PM) Crowns: "Sounds fun." (9:09:29 PM) Crowns: (Remmon: feel free to defer my question until we finish the original conversation) (9:09:37 PM) ***Silk looks thoughtful. (9:09:43 PM) Remmon: "This is the first time in several decades I've had visitors that made it past the beach, we can have some food if you're hungry and otherwise, question away." (9:09:44 PM) Silk: "Not bears with sharks?" (9:10:07 PM) Silk: "Ohhh, Food would be nice thanks." (9:10:09 PM) Remmon: "That one didn't fail. Don't go for a swim in the oceans around the island if you want to keep all your limbs." (9:10:15 PM) Silk: "Ah." (9:11:50 PM) ***Birds permits someone else to ask the first question. (9:12:11 PM) Remmon: Moon yells at the mansion in old realm, telling it to deliver some food. (9:12:53 PM) Remmon: A few minutes later a giant turtle shows up with a plate of food on its back. (9:13:03 PM) Remmon: It's mostly seafood (9:13:03 PM) Crowns: "Nice trick. Did you train it or make it?" (9:13:16 PM) Remmon: "Both. It used to try to eat the food." (9:13:21 PM) ***Silk takes some seafood and chews on it. (9:13:39 PM) Remmon: "And the native variants are too small. I needed dozens of them and sometimes they got caught underfoot." (9:14:05 PM) Silk: "How'd you get them to be bigger?" (9:14:32 PM) Remmon: "I just told them to be bigger, how else would you get them to be bigger?" (9:14:55 PM) Silk: "No idea. That sounds like a useful skill to learn..." (9:16:40 PM) Remmon: "You have a long way to go, youngster." (9:16:55 PM) Crowns: "So here's our problem - our knowledge of the First Age is fragmentary and contradictory, in large part because we've heard it from parties who very definitely slanted it, like the Immaculate Order and the Silver Prince. Silk suggested we should ask someone older and wiser." (9:17:38 PM) Remmon: "Well, I wasn't around for the First Age myself, I'm not quite that old. But I got plenty of information on it from those who did." (9:17:50 PM) ***Birds listens in. (9:17:57 PM) Crowns: "What I've gathered second hand is that the Solars ruled, and then someone foresaw horrible things if they kept ruling, so the someone deposed the Solars." (9:18:16 PM) Crowns: "Silk also related that apparently the Solars were beloved, but nobody other than the Solars wants them to return." (9:18:34 PM) Crowns: "Other than this... too much propaganda." (9:18:40 PM) Silk: "Not entirely true, but the majority opinion would appear to be against it." (9:19:47 PM) Remmon: "The Solars ruled, most of them were neither good nor bad. They caused their share of problems, but they also kept the worst of the monsters away. Some were troublemakers and a handfull were just all-round good." (9:20:33 PM) Remmon: "In the end, the Dragon blooded and the Sidereals conspired against the Solars, killing almost all of them and imprisoning them." (9:21:03 PM) Crowns: "Who are the Sidereals? I have the vague impression that they're the heavenly brothers of the Dragon-blooded. God-blooded?" (9:21:07 PM) Remmon: "And a decade or two back, something happened that released most of the Solars and we've started noticing them again." (9:21:25 PM) Birds: "Do you know what the prophecy was that started all this?" (9:22:25 PM) Remmon: "The Sidereals? You don't know about Sidereals? I've got books on them, I'll get some in a bit." (9:23:24 PM) Remmon: "As for this so called prophecy. I doubt there ever was one." (9:23:51 PM) Silk: "... What about the madness...? You know... Those feelings we get at Full Moon, those... impulses. I know that Crowns and Shield get them as well when stressed, but... Birds doesn't now... I find this confusing..." (9:24:46 PM) Silk: "Would the First Age Solars have been that... using the term loosely, benevolent, if they'd been liable to snap and act irrationally in numerous instances?" (9:24:50 PM) Remmon: "The curse. The last thing the Primordials did before dying was to curse us all." (9:25:03 PM) Crowns: ((Crowns has yet to limit break and isn't really an emoting or angsting sort of person. You're guessing a bit. :P)) (9:25:22 PM) Silk: ((Gah. Extrapolation! :-p )) (9:25:42 PM) Birds: "That sounds like them. How do we fix it?" (9:26:02 PM) Remmon: "Come back in a few millenia, I might have an answer." (9:26:48 PM) Silk: "How many know of this... Curse?" (9:27:14 PM) Remmon: "I don't know, most of the elder Lunars. I haven't really met many Solars recently." (9:27:49 PM) ***Birds thinks. (9:29:02 PM) Crowns: "Who is the 'us all' that the Primordials cursed? Solars and Lunars?" (9:29:15 PM) Birds: "If, as you say, this is a curse laid down on our exaltations by the dying Primordials, that means that the Neverborn have the power to revoke it. I think I can work with this." (9:30:38 PM) Silk_: "... I guess that's a problem we're going to have to leave unfixed for the immediate future..." (9:31:26 PM) Silk_: "... I suppose we could try telling other Exalts we meet about it?" (9:31:34 PM) Remmon: "The Solars and Lunars, yes. The ones directly responsible for their defeat in their eyes." (9:32:15 PM) Birds: "I would have thought all exalted would have been cursed, but I suppose the Dragon-Blooded might not have merited much attention." (9:32:50 PM) Silk: ((Bah, computer sound's borked, BRB while I restart.)) (9:32:50 PM) Remmon: "The dragon-blooded were just the foot soldiers. I suspect the Primordials didn't want to dilute their curse too much." (9:33:36 PM) Silk left the room (quit: Connection closed). (9:35:45 PM) Birds: "We may need some experiments to determine the exact nature of the curse and how it works. Do you know if we could get in touch with someone from the Bureau of Exaltations?" (9:36:52 PM) Remmon: "Hmm... There should be a portal up to Yu-shan around here somewhere. Not sure where it is precisely however." (9:37:12 PM) Schleiermacher left the room (quit: Ping timeout: 121 seconds). (9:37:24 PM) Remmon: "You might have trouble getting past the gates of Yu-Shan though." (9:38:58 PM) Crowns: "Why, are they guarded with walls of flame forged from the blood of its natives that only parts for those it knows this way?" (9:39:38 PM) ***Birds rolls eyes. She had explained this. (9:39:42 PM) Remmon: "Errmm... no..." (9:39:54 PM) Birds: "Do you know anyone in Creation who might issue us an invitation?" (9:40:22 PM) Remmon: "I'm afraid not." (9:41:19 PM) Silk chatzilla@B19C04.1BA17F.33EB50.8F031B entered the room. (9:42:12 PM) Crowns: "So, to return to the First Age - is there any reason the Solars should not eventually rise again, as they presumably did the first time?" (9:43:27 PM) Remmon: The first time they were just kind of handed the reigns and told to run the place. If you can gather a good number of Solars and some loyal dragon blooded, you might be able to overthrow the Realm." (9:44:29 PM) Birds: "I think Crowns was asking for the moral side of things." (9:44:33 PM) Crowns: "So we need to talk to the Unconquered Sun and convince him to hand us the reigns again. Or at least some of them. All I want is a princess and a cult, anyway." (9:44:42 PM) ***Silk does not believe Birds (9:44:42 PM) Crowns: "But, that brings us back to entering Yu-Shan again." (9:44:54 PM) Crowns: (I wasn't.) (9:45:08 PM) Remmon: "Get strong enough and the guards of Yu-Shan won't even question your entry." (9:45:32 PM) Birds: "Provided you are a celestial, that is." (9:45:54 PM) Remmon: "Well obviously. Terrestrials have no business in Yu-Shan." (9:46:13 PM) ***Birds obviously doesn't believe there to be any physical impediment for Solars to overthrowing the Realm. (9:46:33 PM) Birds: +be (9:46:57 PM) Silk: "We'd have to go about it carefully, if we could do it at all..." (9:47:15 PM) Silk: "That curse... I really don't like the idea of that hanging over our heads..." (9:48:19 PM) Crowns: "For once, you have a worry that I don't think you can stop worrying about by getting sufficiently drunk." (9:48:34 PM) Crowns: "Unless Moon has invented new types of wine along with new types of animals, maybe?" (9:48:48 PM) Remmon: "Wine? Nah, that's not strong enough." (9:49:13 PM) Crowns: "Go on." (9:50:01 PM) Remmon: "I made some new plants and distillation to make extremely strong liquors." (9:51:02 PM) Crowns: "Maybe you should try those, Silk." (9:51:06 PM) Remmon: Moon picks up a bottle off the back of the giant turtle and opens it, pouring a couple of glasses of clear liquid (9:51:12 PM) Birds: "On that note, any luck or attempts in reverse-engineering the Beasts of Resplendent Liquid?" (9:51:15 PM) Remmon: "I call it Firewater." (9:51:49 PM) Remmon: "Not by me at least." (9:52:06 PM) Silk: "No thanks. Not really a drinker... I note you left out Lunars on that list of people we may try to get to join our cause..." (9:52:38 PM) Birds: "This may be because some Lunars are already on it." (9:53:12 PM) Remmon: "Most of us believe we'd be better off if the world could run itself without any Exalts involved, so I doubt there'll be many Lunars joining your cause." (9:53:38 PM) Remmon: "The rest are already working on returning the Solars to their place." (9:54:34 PM) Silk: "Yeh, see, I'm with them there. Well... I'd be happy with an isolated community that ran without Exalts at the least. Does seem a bit like trying to light a candle underwater though." (9:54:56 PM) ***Silk considers that statement (9:55:03 PM) Silk: "Without use of charms, that is." (9:56:33 PM) Birds: "That kind of world sounds immeasurably boring." (9:56:54 PM) Silk: "Boring can be what people crave." (9:57:04 PM) Silk: "Excitement is... well, dangerous, generally." (9:57:09 PM) Birds: "I think a better solution would be to turn everyone into Dragon-Blooded." (9:57:17 PM) Crowns: "Eh, it could still be fun if it has sufficient amounts of disheveled gods, scantily clad humans, wild horses, elephant riders, and the occasional volcano." (9:58:18 PM) ***Silk gives Moon a look that speaks along the lines of "Help me, please." (9:58:29 PM) Crowns: ((Note: please tell me if Crowns' attitude crosses the line from being irreverent to just annoying OOC.)) (10:00:23 PM) Remmon: "Disheveled gods, without Exalts to keep them in check. That sounds like a recipe for disaster all by itself." (10:01:03 PM) Crowns: "Possible. But it wouldn't be immeasurably boring." (10:01:21 PM) Birds: "I concede the point, then." (10:03:12 PM) Birds: "Still, with some careful eugenics and celestial magic, it ought to be possible to breed out mortality out of the human race." (10:03:38 PM) Silk: "Of course, making a place designed to run with as little Exalt interference as possible is just asking for some Solar or other to roll in and take over..." (10:03:55 PM) Remmon: "Now there's a plan that might work. But then we end up with Dragon blooded everywhere causing mayhem." (10:04:23 PM) Birds: "Not necessarily. They've still got everyone else to keep them in check." (10:04:34 PM) Silk: "... that's a terrible plan." (10:04:38 PM) Crowns: "Dragon-blooded throw nice parties when they're not out trying to keep me in check." (10:04:41 PM) Crowns: "Could work." (10:05:40 PM) Birds: "Why, Silk? Would you prefer Lunar half-castes? Those could work too." (10:06:13 PM) Shield: "Mortals are really bad at things, as a rule. Elevating them to be good at things seems reasonable." (10:06:18 PM) Silk: "I mean, the whole, "Oh they'll all keep themselves in check."" (10:06:39 PM) Silk: "People don't work like that." (10:06:52 PM) Birds: "I don't see this any worse than mortals being picked on by all the essence-users." (10:07:46 PM) Silk: "At least there's a large part of the population that can be relied upon to /not/ cause massive chaos in their wake?" (10:08:45 PM) Birds: "Hm. Let's try a different track. Do you know the original purpose of mankind?" (10:08:59 PM) Silk: "... Uh, can't say I do..." (10:09:44 PM) Birds: "Cattle. Mortals were created to be cattle for the gods, to feed them via prayer, and blood sacrifice." (10:10:09 PM) Silk: "... That's... terrible." (10:10:20 PM) Birds: "I agree." (10:11:24 PM) Birds: "Then the gods empowered some of them, our spiritual ancestors. Gave them power to kill the Primordials, and when we did, the right to rule Creation. This didn't work out so well, obviously, but I hope for a retry." (10:11:40 PM) Silk: "So we can fail again?" (10:11:50 PM) Birds: "That's unusually pessimistic of you." (10:12:20 PM) Crowns: "Well, we should at least aspire to not fail the same way." (10:12:27 PM) Silk: "As you said, it didn't work out last time. And if anything, we'd be approaching /this/ time from a worse starting point." (10:12:34 PM) Birds: "I'm not sure I understand your viewpoint. You object to us ruling over the mortals for their own benefit, and you object to giving the mortals power so they can rule themselves?" (10:13:32 PM) ***Silk rubs her forehead. (10:14:22 PM) Quad left the room (quit: NS Quit: Do fish get thirsty?). (10:15:25 PM) Silk: "Put it this way." (10:15:45 PM) Silk: "Either way would involve meddling on levels that I'm not entirely sure I'm comfortable with." (10:17:59 PM) Silk: "I don't have an answer for what to do yet. Maybe I never really will. But I just don't see why we can't let them live their lives as they are now..." (10:18:20 PM) Silk: "... Well... not exactly... Urgh..." (10:18:33 PM) Crowns: "It's unstable." (10:18:49 PM) Crowns: "It can't go on, and we should find a replacement before the world just picks one." (10:19:20 PM) Silk: "I can't see anything we do as being particularly stable either." (10:19:20 PM) Birds: "Creation and its inhabitants have multiple problems, mostly from without. The Neverborn, the Yozis, corrupt gods, raksha..." (10:20:15 PM) Silk: "... Okay... I think we /should/ make best efforts to get rid of those." (10:20:22 PM) Silk: "After that though?" (10:20:28 PM) Birds: "That's something I can agree with, provisionally." (10:21:46 PM) Silk: "... Maybe you have a point about needing to elevate humanity, but I'm sure there's /got/ to be a better way somehow." (10:22:05 PM) Silk: "I just don't know what that is yet." (10:22:49 PM) Crowns: "Where are you looking?" (10:23:13 PM) ***Birds shrugs. "Any efforts we make will have to be extremely long-term. Waiting fifty years or a hundred isn't going to upset them much." (10:23:32 PM) Birds: "In the meantime, I would like to solve my personal problems, first." (10:24:23 PM) Crowns: "That reminds me of somethings, Birds." (10:24:51 PM) Crowns: "What are the Neverborn and Deathlords planning that's taking so long and still has you so important?" (10:25:13 PM) Crowns: "You'd think that in fifty years they could find someone else." (10:25:13 PM) Remmon: "The destruction of Creation, amongst others." (10:25:21 PM) Crowns: "Yes, but in specifics." (10:25:38 PM) ***Silk falls silent, staring into the middle distance. (10:25:45 PM) Birds: "I think the Silver Prince is just short a few Daybreaks. I might be his only allotted shard of that caste." (10:27:01 PM) Birds: "I don't know the exact plans of the Deathlords, never mind the Neverborn. Given that I didn't complete my initiation, I didn't even meet them." (10:27:23 PM) Birds: "I have come to suspect, however, that the Deathlords are simply mucking about because of poor incentives." (10:27:33 PM) Crowns: "You sounded like you were planning to meet them when you said the Neverborn had the authority to revoke the death curse." (10:28:23 PM) Birds: "I am unsure how to force them to revoke it. What would I threaten them with, death?" (10:29:23 PM) Crowns: "Hmmm... right, they're dead... well, what about just forcing them? Beat them until they give up?" (10:30:18 PM) Birds: "That also might be difficult. The best idea I can come up with is finding some way to a) trick them, b) kill them without killing Creation so we have a bargaining chip." (10:30:39 PM) Birds: "Kill them completely, that is. Deader than they are now." (10:30:49 PM) ***Crowns looks at Shield. (10:31:21 PM) Shield: "The Neverborn? Where do we even find them? That aside, we should probably practice on a Deathlord first." (10:31:32 PM) Birds: "They're very easy to find." (10:31:34 PM) Remmon: "Finding the Neverborn is easy enough." (10:31:43 PM) Birds: "They're hanging just above Oblivion." (10:31:45 PM) Silk: "... We either need more people or... more experience." (10:32:46 PM) Crowns: "Fine. Put it on the to-do list." (10:33:28 PM) Silk: "All these long term plans..." (10:33:30 PM) Crowns: "Find some nice convenient energy fields containing the dying breath and stored wisdom of an ancient dead sage." (10:35:21 PM) ***Silk turns to Shield "... Am I coming off as mad to you?" (10:36:34 PM) Shield: "With regard to what?" (10:37:38 PM) Silk: "Plans, feelings, that kind of thing. I feel like I /know/ what I want, but I can't think of any way to describe it adequately..." (10:37:56 PM) Crowns: "Try the firewater." (10:38:17 PM) Shield: "You have no plan that seems likely to work. But you're a Lunar, so I suppose it'll all work out. Throwing enough power at problems usually works." (10:38:50 PM) Silk: "Mmm..." (10:38:56 PM) ***Silk eyes the Firewater. (10:39:58 PM) Silk: !exalted 2: Temperance! Drink or no drink! (10:39:59 PM) PainBot: Silk rolled "Temperance! Drink or no drink!": (1 10). Successes (TN 7) = 2. (10:40:42 PM) Remmon: No drink. You'd get drunk (10:41:27 PM) Silk: "Yeh, no... I'm confused enough without adding drunkness into the mix." (10:41:56 PM) Birds: (Does anyone have any UMI to inflict on Silk here? :P) (10:42:06 PM) Crowns: (Not yet, I'm still training.) (10:42:25 PM) Crowns: "Fine, I will." (10:42:36 PM) Remmon: 4xp all. (10:42:40 PM) ***Crowns tries the firewater. (10:42:45 PM) Remmon: Feel free to keep chatting for a while, I will keep logs :p (10:46:00 PM) Crowns: !exalted 4: Stamina+resistance (10:46:00 PM) PainBot: Crowns rolled "Stamina+resistance": (3 4 10 7). Successes (TN 7) = 3. (10:46:53 PM) Birds: You are staminous and resistant. (10:47:17 PM) Crowns: "So who should we recruit to go along with finding these experience fields?" (10:49:32 PM) Birds: "Hmm. Some friendly Sidereals wouldn't hurt. Indeed, I have read about a celestial circle spell that allowed teaching of just about anything. It's the kind of thing they would probably have, given how few of them there are and how shorthanded they must be." (10:51:00 PM) Crowns: "I think I should get to reading one of Moon's books." (10:53:19 PM) Birds: "That could work too."